Marketing Silk I

Dublin Core

Title

Marketing Silk I

Description

This silk scarf was made by Ajaan Surachote and has been awarded a “Royal Thai Silk - Gold Peacock” logo by the Queen Sirikit Institute of Sericulture, Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. The peacock logo system was devised by Queen Sirikit to ensure customer confidence and to inform customers about the grade of silk they are purchasing; the gold peacock is the highest rating, followed by silver, then blue, and lastly, green. A gold peacock indicates that the cloth is made of silk from native silkworms in both the warp and the weft, and the silk has been hand-spun and woven with a wooden hand loom. A new feature of the peacock system is the inclusion of the square QR code sticker on some products; buyers who possess smart phones loaded with the requisite app can scan this sticker to learn more about the origin of the specific piece of silk. Of course, the decision to utilize this technology as a part of the silk marketing scheme reveals assumptions about the profiles of potential customers in terms of their abilities to access these digital “enhanced shopping” functions.